NYS Writers Institute Fall Season Opens with Natalie Merchant
ALBANY, N.Y. (Sept. 1, 2026) — Singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant, acclaimed author Lois Lowry and biographer Kai Bird, and the ninth annual Albany Book Festival highlight a new fall season of events from the New York State Writers Institute.
The schedule features conversations, film screenings and literary events at UAlbany and throughout the Capital Region.
The season opens Wednesday with Natalie Merchant, one of the defining singer-songwriters of her generation, in conversation with WAMC’s Joe Donahue at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center. Merchant will discuss her new album and multimedia collaboration, Cabinet of Wonder, an educational project inspired by traditional Mother Goose nursery rhymes and her three years as an artist-in-residence at a Head Start preschool in Troy.
The Albany Book Festival returns to UAlbany on Saturday, Sept. 26, bringing together nationally known writers and more than 60 local authors, publishers and literary organizations. Featured authors include novelist and Harvard professor Namwali Serpell, author of On Morrison; restaurateur and memoirist Keith McNally; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, and celebrated expert on the development of women and girls, Carol Gilligan. The free festival also features panel discussions, children’s activities and a local author marketplace.
Other fall highlights include two-time Newbery Medal winner Lowry, author of The Giver and Number the Stars, on Oct. 28; acclaimed actor and 1991 UAlbany graduate D.B. Woodside, known for roles in “The Night Agent,” “24,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Lucifer,” on Nov. 4; and historian Douglas Brinkley, who will receive the 2026 Empire State Archives and History Award Nov. 12 at The Egg.
The Institute will also celebrate its Albany roots Nov. 17 with an 11-hour marathon public reading of Roscoe, the landmark novel of Albany politics by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and NYS Writers Institute founder William Kennedy.
The fall schedule also includes programs on artificial intelligence, immigration, journalism, politics, poetry and film.
For a complete list of events, visit the New York State Writers Institute.